Thursday, July 28, 2011

I've belatedly heard about The Big Picture, a French thriller based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy. Nowhere in Birmingham is currently showing it so I may have to wait for the DVD.

Paul Exben is a success story – a great job, a glamorous wife and two wonderful sons. Except that this is not the life he has been dreaming of. A moment of madness is going to change his life, forcing him to assume a new identity that will enable him to live his life fully…

The Big Picture, an adaptation of the novel by Douglas Kennedy, is directed by Eric Lartigau and starsRomain Duris, Marina Foïs, Niels Arestrup and Catherine Deneuve.

The trailer is 2 minutes long and it doesn't appear to give too much away!

Monday, July 25, 2011

Now 2011's prize for the CWA International Dagger has been awarded we can turn our attention to the next crop of titles, eligible for 2012's crown.

So here's the list so far of translated crime novels published between June 2011 and May 2012 ie the period of eligibility. There's 77 so far (cf 52 last year) with a few more to come no doubt! NB. Only 1 book per author can be submitted for consideration.

For ease of purchase/library reservation here they are listed by UK month of publication:

In addition to the list I have set up a Good Reads widget on the right-hand side of the blog. This allows the covers to be visible plus you can add them to your wish-list on Good Reads. I won't be filling in the rating system though! Should you wish to, I've been told you can subscribe to this list through RSS at: www.goodreads.com/review/list_rss/5685010?shelf=int-dagger-eligible-2012. So far I've added June-February but I plan to add the rest in due course.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Here are the highlights from the press release for the longlisted and shortlisted Dagger Awards announced tonight at Harrogate:

Harrogate, Friday, 22nd July, 2011—Specsavers, Cactus TV and ITV3, in partnership with the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), are pleased to announce three key book longlists and one shortlist for the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3, celebrating the very best of British and International crime thriller fiction.

The longlisted categories revealed today are the CWA Gold Dagger for the Best Crime Novel of the Year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the Best Thriller of the Year, and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for the Best New Crime Writer of the Year. The shortlisted category announced today is for the ITV3 People’s Bestseller Dagger. The lists for all four are as follows:

The shortlists for the CWA Gold Dagger for the Best Crime Novel of the Year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the Best Thriller of the Year, and the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for the Best New Crime Writer of the Year will be announced on Monday 22nd August.

The 2011 season documentary series called The A to Z of Crime was also announced today, starting on Thursday 1st September at 9.00pm on ITV3. This follows the huge success of the 2010 Crime Documentaries season, which reached an audience of nearly 4 million viewers. The actual awards show saw a 67% increase in reach to 970,000 including repeats. ITV3 will be showing 6 x 1 hour documentaries in the lead up to the awards ceremony at Grosvenor House, featuring five specially selected bestselling authors as listed above.

In the six weeks leading up to the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2011, the British public will get the chance to vote for the ITV3 People's Bestseller Dagger both by phone and online. The winner will be presented with their award at the glamorous awards ceremony on 7th October, celebrating the very best of Crime & Thriller fiction. Voting is now open and full details on how to vote are below.

ITV3 People's Bestseller Dagger Voting Information

To vote for their favourite Author the public can call 09016 16 14 and add:

01 for LEE CHILD

02 for MARK BILLINGHAM

03 for PETER JAMES

04 for DAVID BALDACCI

05 for PETER ROBINSON

Or vote online at itv.com/crimethrillerawards

Each vote costs no more than 36p from a BT landline. Calls from other networks may be higher and from mobiles will be considerably more. There is no charge for votes made online. Lines close at 9am on the 7th October 2011. Votes made after this time will not be counted by may still be charged. Terms and conditions apply. Please go to itv.com/terms for details.

More details about the longlisted books are available on the CWA's website.

The polls have now closed for voting on who you want to and think will win this year's CWA International Dagger. The Dagger winner will be announced this evening at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

There were 147 votes in the "want to win" and 68 votes in the "will win". In both cases the winner was An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas followed by Wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri in the "want to win" and Three Seconds by Roslund-Hellstrom in the "will win".

The other titles, Needle in a Haystack by Mallo, The Saint-Florentin Murders by Parot, River of Shadows by Varesi and Death on a Galician Shore by Villar, all received votes in both polls.

I will remove the polls in the next couple of days. Many thanks to all those who took part and read the shortlist.

The winner of the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2011 has been announced. The winner is Lee Child for 61 Hours. P D James was presented with the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. Read the whole press release here.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I received a press release today from Transworld about a new Jack Reacher book from Lee Child (in addition to the upcoming The Affair) which will be digital only:

Second Son by Lee Child will be published as an exclusive, specially priced eBook globally on 15th August 2011. It will also be released as an audio digital download. This is the first time Transworld has published a major author in digital exclusive format.

Ever wondered what early experiences shaped Reacher’s explosive career as butt-kicker supreme, the oneman guided missile battler for justice?

Lee Child takes his millions of readers back in time, to a family living on a military base in the Pacific, and to its youngest son – a quiet, brilliant, and already heroic thirteen year old named Jack Reacher.

It's been reported on The Bookseller that there are no plans to release it as a print book.

The press release also states that "Paramount has confirmed that One Shot will be filmed with Tom Cruise in the starring role as Jack Reacher".

Camilla Lackberg's The Ice Princess is being serialised on Radio 4 Extra and is read by Alex Tregear. The first of 5 parts was aired on Saturday but you can listen again on BBC iPlayer for the next 3 days. The second part will be broadcast on Saturday at 11.30pm.

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Russia House by John le Carre, BBC Radio 4 Full-Cast Audio Dramatisation (AudioGo, July 2011, ISBN: 9781408410622, 4 CDs)

The play opens at the Moscow Audio (Cassette) Fair where Katya is trying to secretly get a manuscript to Barley Blair for publication. Barley has skipped the show so the manuscript travels to London with a friend of Barley's who, when he is unable to track down Barley, takes the manuscript to the authorities. It is then subsequently taken to the "Russia House" where the manuscript is found to be political dynamite. The author claims that a lot of things in Russia don't work properly and that scientific evidence has been fabricated.

To ensure that the manuscript is not a fake, the authorities (intelligence services) have to track down Barley and persuade him to go back to Russia to find the author. Will Barley agree and will he be able to do it successfully?

Set at a time when Russia was opening up, The Russia House is a tale of betrayal, sacrifice and love, both for country and for individuals. I found it fascinating and gripping and it's still quite complicated despite its running time of only just over 3 hours - compared to the 400 page book. There are a few familiar voices in the cast, the main one being Tom Baker as the likeable cad Barley. No-one says Harry quite like he does! The public-school tones of Pip Torrens are equally recognisable as Clive, a bureaucrat who excels in protecting himself.

The Russia House was published in 1989 and this radio adaptation was broadcast in 1994 and, as well as the different state of the world back then, it shows its age a little in terms of cassettes and the fact that spies have tape recorders rather than wireless eavesdropping equipment, but it does give an intriguing insight into how things were politically, not so long ago.

Though I have enjoyed books by relative newcomers to the spy writing genre such as Stella Rimington and Jon Stock, I've never read any le Carre - I've been convinced I wouldn't understand them - but this has given me a chance at least to sample the great man's writing.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Pan Macmillan has bought world rights ...to The Lost Library and a second book by A M Blake. The first book will be published in late 2012 as one of Pan Macmillan's "major launch titles".

The novel is a conspiracy thriller about the ancient library of Alexandria. Founded in the third century BC, it collected major works on mathematics, astronomy and physics but was destroyed under mysterious circumstances. The publisher said: "The Lost Library introduces young history Professor Emily Wess as she is drawn into the midst of a centuries-old ring of lies, deceit, and bloodshed—all in the quest for the world’s greatest single repository of truth, the Library of Alexandria."

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

For 15 years Juliette has had no contact with her family, who had rejected her. On her release from prison, Léa, her younger sister, takes her into her home which she shares with her husband Luc, his father, and their young children and they try to rebuild their relationship.

Anger Mode by Stefan Tegenfalk (1 August, Nordic Noir)Two cars collide head-to-head on a country road with little traffic. The collision is violent. Ten year old Cecilia is catapulted through the windscreen and killed. Five years later, criminal detective Walter Grohn gets a perplexing case on his desk - one dead taxi driver and his killer who has no idea why he committed the crime. The first murder is followed by others, all equally as brutal and inexplicable. Together with his talented assistant, Jonna de Brugge, he untangles threads that lead back to the very core of the Swedish justice/judicial system.

(Stefan Tegenfalk, born 1965 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he is currently living, makes his debut with the book Anger Mode which is the first book of a trilogy about the cynical criminal detective Walter Gröhn with the Stockholm police, and Jonna de Brugge from the Special Investigations Unit, RSU.)

The Glitter Scene by Monika Fagerholm (9 August, Other Press (US edition))Teenage Johanna lives with her aunt Solveig in a small house bordering the forest on the outskirts of a remote coastal town in Finland. She leads a lonely existence that is punctuated by visits to her privileged classmate, Ulla Bäckström, who lives in the nearby luxury gated community. It isn’t until Ulla tells her the local lore about the American girl and the tragedy that took place more than thirty years before that Johanna begins to question how her parents fit into the story. She sets out to unravel her family history, the identity of her mother, and the dark secrets long buried with her father. In the process of opening closed doors, others in the community reflect back on the town’s history, on their youth, and on the dreams that play in their minds. Soon a new story emerges, that stirs up Johanna’s greatest fears, but ultimately leads to the answers she is searching for. The Glitter Scene is a riveting mystery that explores the roles of truth and myth, reality and fiction, and the repercussions of family secrets.

Dregs by Jørn Lier Horst, tr Anne Bruce (12 August, Sandstone Press Ltd)The small town of Stavern around midsummer: an amputated left foot in a trainer is washed ashore. And then another one. And another one. All in all four left feet in a week. The four amputated feet form the core of an unfathomable mystery.

“Dregs” by Jørn Lier Horst is the sixth instalment of the Wisting crime series set in southern Norway, and it is an outstanding addition to the ongoing saga of Police Inspector William Wisting, his journalist daughter Line, and the team of criminal investigators at Larvik police station.

The author, who has himself several years’ experience as a Norwegian policeman, brings his knowledge to bear on the descriptions of police procedures and methodical detection work, while using his linguistic dexterity and impressive authorial technique to build up tension, delineate character and make excellent use of dialogue to bring the twists and turns of this narrative to life, engaging the empathy of the reader and ensuring that the novel is a memorable, taut and realistic thriller.

(Jørn Lier Horst was born in 1970, in Bamble, Telemark, Norway. He has worked as a policeman in Larvik since 1995. His debut novel in 2004, Key Witness, was based on a true murder story. The William Wisting novel series – Key Witness (2004), Goodbye, Felicia (2005), When the Sea Calms (2006), The Only One (2007), and The Night Man (2009) – has been extremely successful in his native Norway as well as Germany and the Netherlands. Dregs is his first book published in English.)

Friday, July 08, 2011

Thanks to Gallic Books, Euro Crime has 5 sets of the three books published in the UK (The Officer's Prey, Wolf Hunt, Memory of Flames) by Armand Cabasson to giveaway. To enter the draw, just answer the question and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open to UK residents and will close on 31 July 2011.Only 1 entry per person/per household please.(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Here's another of my occasional posts about African Crime Fiction. You won't find these authors, with the exception of Margie Orford who was born in London, in the bibliography section of Euro Crime but there are reviews of Deon Meyer's and Michael Stanley's books on the review page.

Here are some upcoming titles for late summer/autumn:

Daddy's Girl by Margie Orford (1 August)Friday evening. A deserted street below Table Mountain. A six-year-old ballerina waits alone for her mother to fetch her. Then an unmarked car approaches, and she is gone. With no trace of where, or why she's been abducted, suspicion falls on her divorced father, Captain Riedwaan. The boss of Cape Town's gang unit, Riedwaan is tough and ruthless, a man accustomed to being in control. But now he is powerless. Suspended from the squad for wasting police time, Riedwaan watches helplessly as the search for his daughter is called off. In desperation, Riedwaan turns to investigative journalist and police profiler Dr Clare Hart, whose brutal TV documentary about Cape Town's missing young girls has made her something of a local celebrity. Clare has seen how aspiring gangsters in the Cape Flats ghetto prove their worth by tormenting children. She knows that the odds of a victim's survival worsen with each passing minute. She understands that finding the child without police involvement will be difficult, dangerous, and probably illegal. But she also knows she'll do anything to help this heartbroken father - even if it puts all their lives at risk.

Trackers by Deon Meyer tr. K L Seegers (1 September)A housewife running from years of domestic abuse. A bodyguard hired to escort a smuggled rhinoceros. A group of Islamic terrorists based in a quiet residential street. A secret government agency threatened with amalgamation within a bigger department. A retired policeman trying to get used to his new career in the private sector.Each of these strands of a brilliant narrative is populated with superbly-drawn characters, and woven into a stunningly exciting drama by the undisputed king of South African suspense fiction. Not only a heart-pounding thriller, but also a love story and a fabulous kaleidoscopic picture of South African society, this is the finest novel yet from an author whose reputation is growing all around the world.

Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (1 September)The third novel in the fantastic Detective 'Kubu' Bengu crime series is set in the southern Kalahari area of Botswana - a place full of buried lost cities, incredible hidden wealth, ancient gods and, for thousands of years, home to the nomadic Bushmen. When a fractious ranger named Monzo is found dead, fallen into a donga - a dry ravine - surrounded by three Bushmen, the local police arrest the nomads. Detective 'Kubu' Bengu is on the case, which reunites him with his old school friend Khumanego, a Bushman and now an advocate for his people. Khumanego believes the arrests are motivated by racist antagonism from the police, as the Bushmen are claiming that they were at the murder scene because they were trying to help. Soon after Monzo's death, Detective 'Kubu' learns of another case involving two botany students on their way back from a specimen-collecting trip but who were later found dead, seemingly poisoned, at a campground. Could the deaths be connected?

The Delta by Tony Park (29 September (paperback)After a failed assassination attempt on the president of Zimbabwe, ex-soldier turned mercenary Sonja Kurtz is on the run. She heads for her only place of refuge, the Okavango Delta in the heart of Botswana. She's keen to forget her warrior lifestyle - it's time for an easy life. But then Sonja discovers that the Delta is on the brink of destruction. She is recruited as an 'eco-commando' in a bid to halt a project that would destroy the Delta's fragile network of swamps and waterways. Soon she finds herself caught in a deadly web of intrigue involving her ex-lover Sterling, the handsome Martin Steele - her mercenary commander, and a TV heartthrob and wildlife documentary presenter 'Coyote' Sam Chapman who blunders out of the bush in a reality show gone wrong. Instead of escaping her violent past, Sonja is now surrounded by men who are relying on her killer instincts to save the day. Where she came to find peace, she finds war...and it is not just the survival of the Delta that is at stake.

Dust Devils by Roger Smith (8 September)This is an unflinching portrayal of the dark side of the new South Africa, where to avenge what he loves, Robert Dell becomes what he hates. On the run after being framed for murdering his family, South African journalist Robert Dell's only ally is his oldest enemy: his father. Bobby Goodbread, an ex-CIA hitman just sprung from prison for atrocities he committed whilst in the employ of the apartheid regime, joins his son on a bloody cross-country road trip, bringing his killing skills and his hunger for redemption. From picture-postcard Cape Town to a Zulu tribal valley where AIDS, savage feuds and poverty have left the population as gutted as the parched red earth, father and son hunt down assassin Dog Mazibuko, uncovering a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the South African State. They cross paths with another man on a desperate mission: ex-investigator Disaster Zondi, returning to the place he fled as a youth to rescue a teenage girl - who may or may not be his daughter - sold into marriage to Mazibuko. These men are thrown together in a spiral of violence and retribution in a country where corruption and anarchy have replaced brutal tyranny and human life has never been cheaper.

Monday, July 04, 2011

The University of Chicago Press are releasing a free ebook every month. This month's it's Robert Van Gulik's The Chinese Maze Murders.

Poisoned plums, a cryptic scroll picture, passionate love letters, and a hidden murderer with a penchant for torturing and killing women lead Judge Dee to the heart of the Governor’s garden maze and the answers to three interwoven mysteries. The Chinese Maze Murders was the first of van Gulik’s Judge Dee mystery novels.